Chiara Enzo on Tactile Gaze and Intimate Painting

Venetian artist Chiara Enzo (born 1989) creates small-scale, intimate paintings that explore the tension between vision and touch. In an interview with Alessia Baranello for C41 Magazine, Enzo discusses how her work emerges from a 'hand-to-hand' engagement with images and reality. She describes her process as a physical, almost aggressive interaction with the surface, using hard pencils to scratch paper and create densely woven marks. Her paintings often depict fragmented body parts, reflecting how she mentally breaks down people into landscapes. Enzo views painting as a way to stay grounded in reality, emphasizing that ninety percent of the work is observation. She sees her art as a bridge to others, seeking images that resonate as shared human experiences. The interview is part of a theme on the need to touch, with Enzo lamenting that touch as a means of understanding the world is being lost in a screen-mediated era.